i have a 120litre fish tank and im sick of the artificial ornatments and plants im looking to further my knowledge in aquascaping to start myself off..

ive been reading up and learning about aquascaping and still learning the basics to start off a planted tank i havent started yet but i need the basic help to get myself started, to help me out with the nutrients and ect needed to setup a first timer tank :Happy:

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i have a 120litre fish tank and im sick of the artificial ornatments and plants im looking to further my knowledge in aquascaping to start myself off..

ive been reading up and learning about aquascaping and still learning the basics to start off a planted tank i havent started yet but i need the basic help to get myself started, to help me out with the nutrients and ect needed to setup a first timer tank :Happy:

thanks

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it would be appreciated if you guys could give me a tip on were to start and any information relavent please and thankyou once again

As someone who has only just started out myself I can advise looking at plants first. I had this great pic in my head of what I wanted and then found out almost none of the plants would grow in my tank because my hardware just wasnt suitable. If you have a look at the kind of planted tank you want check out the plant requirements before starting anything (Substrate,CO2,Light etc). Having the right setup will save you alot of frustration later on. Any of the guys here will be able to advise on plants and such (Except me cause Im a newb and my latin is rubbish! )

thankyou for the advice guys
i dont have any lighting for my fish tank yet :S
i dont no what type of light to look for should i go for a LED? Halogen?
The first type of plant i wanted to grow was glossostigma to cover the ground i did look at hair grass but i like the look of the glossostigma better if you guys no of any other nice looking ground covers let me no so i can have a look also i do not no what type of soil to put at the bottom of the tank underneath my gravel substrate?

If you wanted to plant glosso, I would suggest to get rich substrate like ADA soil forget about gravel substrate . You also need about 3 watt per gallon of light to make glosso stay low, that roughly about 100W. Otherwise the glosso will grow tall.

okay thankyou so to keep my glosso low for my substrate i need a mid level lighting but if i do have a brighter light for my glosso could i not just prune it back to the level i wanted it?
and it doesnt matter what gravel i have because the glosso will cover it?
thankyou also is there any other direct way i can talk to you to ask you many more questions when you have the time?

As far as I understand it, the glosso will stay short if you have higher light. Lower light and it grows up instead of carpet. Also, you probably want a finer type of gravel for that. I may be wrong about the gravel but from what I have learned, alot of the carpet type plants prefer a finer gravel over the bigger type.

wow thats intresting to no well thankyou heaps
looks like ive got some money to save up to buy some rich ada soil and and finer gravel for these glosso

i have taken a few picture of my fish tank that i have at the moment it isnt very special and needs alot done to it but if you have any ideas for a hard scape i am happy to try it out for a first timer i will upload some pictures of it now

one more thing heating
ive read alot of forms and they keep telling me diffrent things some says under gravel heaters and some say glass heaters (which is what i have) do you think i need to change my heaters of just leave them?

Back to glosso, yes you can trim but it will look ugly. It is always look better when they creep/crawl by them self. I recommended ADA soil because it is reach of nutrient, you do not need to put any gravel on top of it. My experience plants grow faster in ADA soil compare to gravel. There might be other brand available in Australia. By the way in which area did you stay? I do know they have ADA distributor at Sydney - Kensington.

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as you estimated my fish tank is approximatley 136litres which converted into about 35 - 36 gallons and that turned out to be about 100watt so do you think i should get a 150 watt lighting because you said that the glosso grows better with higher lighting?

I personally got around that problem using reflectors. The reflectors boosted the light output by 100% and they only cost me £10. I played around with light upgrades a couple of weeks ago and they are more trouble than they are worth unless you have an open tank or one with a lid that you can add extra light to. I actually got so fed up doing stuff the wrong way round I went out and bought a new tank. The trick here is to plan ahead

that is true because i dont have a lid on my fish tank i dont no if i should go out and buy a brand new fish tank with a stand and a lid with an inbuilt light but it does get alot of light during the day so do you recommend i get a light to fit my tank instead of a new one? and what are these reflectors are they just mirrors on the side of the tank?

If its an open tank with no lid then you have a few options available to you. I had a problem because my lid was moulded to fit the light it came with and I couldnt attach any more. Alot, if not most, of the guys on here have open tanks from what I can tell. They will be able to point you in the right direction for sure.

okay thankyou
like you said before about the 3 watts per gallon i have about 35 gallon tank so thats equivalent to 103 watts and as you said before that glosso grows better with higher lighting?
should i get a 150watts light that fits the size of my tank then?

I dont think many people take the watts per gallon thing too seriously after a certain size. Turns out the TYPE of light is just as important as the amount of light.From what I understand, more light needs more CO2 which leaves you open to more algae. It's a bit tricky to get it all to work out nicely as a beginner.On the plus side, if theres anyone who can show you the right way to go they will be on this site. It has a great Guru/Newb ratio

ahh i see well i was going to get a 100watt halogen or LED?
also im assuming that i will definently need a co2 diffuser and the whole setup for my 35 gallon tank?
to prevent algea and i no all the other little bits an pieces like take out a certain percent of water and things like that to prevent algea....

From what I know, LED is very expensive. I dont have an open tank so i cant really help with the lighting options unfortunately.

CO2 is a must for alot of plants. You get some that grow well enough without it but you wont get a carpet without CO2. I have had Hairgrass in my tank for over a month now and only used a manual type CO2 system and its done nothing. You want a pressurized system in my opinion if you can afford it. I'm saving up for one and should finally be able to get it in a couple of weeks. Ask around on here for one. I'm getting mine from someone on here

That is true, watt per gallon is not really accurate especially for large tank and nano tank but then watt is the simplest that can be understand by everyone. Anyway if I tell you XX mmol you probably scratching head how to measure that )

You can try 2x55W PL light (those 'U' shape fluorescent light bulb), other country may call it differently. by the way what is your tank dimension? You do not want to add too much light especially if you are new to planted tank due to algae attack.

LED is still very-very expensive but if budget not a constraint than go ahead and try. Halogen light? are you talking about Metal Halide?